Climbing Hard on a Trip
Hey Steph
I need some advice!
I’m just coming to the end of a weeks climbing in the south of France!
Fabulous place! Great weather!
I’ve had a great winter of training but haven’t been able to translate this into decent grades at the crag!
Felt really strong before I came out but keep getting my butt kicked on fairly easy climbs!
5c/6a.
Any thoughts on what I’m doing wrong?
Dave
Hi Dave,
I’ve heard so many friends talking about this same experience: training hard, climbing great at home, and then being disappointed by having to drop way down in grade on a climbing trip, and I’ve had the same experience every time I visit new places to climb. It’s perfectly normal, so don’t let it get you down!
Climbing on a trip can be tough, especially because most people train hard to get ready for a big climbing trip and have a lot of hopes of all the climbs to be climbed. And most people are disappointed by feeling like they didn’t climb as well as they did at home and also by not getting to do everything they had hoped to do. There are a lot of things at play: usually on a trip, you’re dealing with travel and that takes a LOT of energy, physical but especially mental. You need to figure out where to stay, probably not getting quite as relaxed and peaceful sleeps as at home, and usually you’re traveling with someone which adds to the negotiation of what to do and where to go all the time. You’re eating different kinds of food, living out of a duffel, paging through guidebooks in a foreign language and trying to translate grading scales and figure out how to find shade or sun…your brain is processing new places and new things, and you’re reacting all the time to change and unfamiliar situations. That’s part of the fun of travel, but it’s energy intensive.
Additionally, the climbing is going to be a different style than you’re used to at any new area you visit, and it takes several days or weeks sometimes to get in the groove of a new place–usually the trip is long finished before then! And since you’re on a trip, it’s nearly impossible to take actual rest days unless it rains, so you will also get more and more tired as the days go by. Often on a trip too, you find yourself climbing in bad conditions (too hot, too humid, too wet, too sunny) because you’re on a trip and that’s what you’ve got! This also can be non-conducive to personal records 😉
Above all, it just takes time to get comfortable in a new place. This is like anything else: some people need less time, some people need more time.
The best thing to do is to take a realistic view of the trip: if it’s short (less than 3 weeks), remind yourself that you’re on vacation! and you’re sampling new areas. You most likely will not be sending at the grades you’re used to at home or at areas you have climbed at frequently. If you will not spend more than 5 days at a single climbing area, get on routes a lot easier than your normal top end at home. Don’t expect to climb at your top grade, and focus on quality and quantity of climbing. If you’re able to stay at a single area for 5 (climbing) days or more, after you’ve gotten to know the area for a few days, choose some routes that you think you can do second or third try as “mini-projects.” This is a very fun and satisfying type of redpoint, and will let you keep that try-hard experience without getting too bogged down on any one route.
If you enjoyed the place you visited, try to return there again: after a few trips, you’ll know the area better and you’ll find that you’re feeling more like yourself when you arrive there on future trips. Or just embrace the fun of vacation climbing–sampling lots of new areas, and enjoying lots of climbing well within your traveling grade range–and regain the psyche to crush your hard projects when you get back home 🙂
Steph
